Suggestions to improve teaching pure vowels artticulation at ho chi minh city university of industry m a 5 07 02

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES  NGUYỄN ĐÌNH LUẬT SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE TEACHING PURE VOWELS ARTICULATION AT HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in TESOL Supervisor: DƯƠNG NGỌC DŨNG, Ph.D HO CHI MINH CITY, 2009 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE TEACHING PURE VOWELS ARTICULATION AT HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY in terms of the statement of Requirements for Theses in Master’s Programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee Ho Chi Minh City, June 18th, 2009 NGUYỄN ĐÌNH LUẬT i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, NGUYỄN ĐÌNH LUẬT, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of theses Ho Chi Minh City, June 18th, 2009 NGUYỄN ĐÌNH LUẬT ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my deep sense of gratitude to Dr Dương Ngọc Dũng, my thesis supervisor, for his careful and patient guidance, invaluable and constructive comments, and positive encouragement, without which it could have been hard for me to complete the study My special thanks also go to Dr Tô Minh Thanh for her inspiration to carry out the investigation from her lectures and heartfelt encouragement My sincere thanks are also due to Ms Nguyễn Thanh Nga for her practical and helpful suggestions I own a debt of gratitude to all of the Master’s course’s lecturers whose invaluable lectures help to provide a solid foundation for the methodology of the study I especially appreciate the administrators at Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry and its Faculty of Foreign Languages providing me with the opportunity and all favorable conditions so that I could undertake this investigation I would like to express my grateful thanks to Mr Võ Duy Minh for his technical support with the phonetic and phonological transcriptions, without which it could have been a challenge for me to present the symbols of the vowels For assistance and unflagging encouragement for the completion of the project, I have been indebted to my colleagues, friends, and family throughout the implementation of the study iii ABSTRACT A large number of English-majored students at Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry, though having learned English since junior high school and being very motivated, still find it hard to speak English with correct pronunciation, especially when individual sounds like pure vowels are under consideration Without being able to produce the sounds correctly, the students also have trouble understanding what they listen to Identified as among the most problematic monophthongs by contrastive analysis and by students themselves, English front vowels are worth investigation Therefore, the study was undertaken as a response to such demand In teaching vowels, O’Connor (1986) argued for the benefits of the teaching technique with listening and imitation rather than any phonological guidance On the other hand, other authors like Tomlinson and Ellis (1981) believed in the effectiveness of using articulatory description of English sounds in pronunciation teaching Murcia, Brinton, and Goodwin suggested an integration of a variety of techniques so that learners’ need could be the best meet Hence, the purpose of the study was to test Connor’s proposition about teaching English vowels by comparing the performances of the two groups of second-year English-majored students at Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry, one being taught without phonetic training, i.e with merely listening and imitation and the other with phonetic and phonological explanation about the articulation of the four front vowels added to classroom instruction The research methodology used in the study included (1) reviewing the final scores from the pronunciation test in the previous semester and delivering a preliminary questionnaire exploring some possible affecting pronunciation learning so that the two most equivalent groups could be selected, (2) conducting a pretest and a post test before and after the two different treatments were applied, and (3) utilizing statistical procedures to compare the performances of the two groups iv The results of the investigation indicated that phonological explanation, together with listening and repetition, was more effective than listening and imitation exclusively in improving the Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry sophomores’ intelligibility with regard to their front vowel production After being taught with phonetic training, the experimental group approach authenticity more closely The error analysis was also conducted to explain why and how the students speaking the Southern and Sothcentral dialects of Vietnamese made errors when producing the four front vowels After reaching the conclusions, the study also recommended some solutions to the errors and several activities that proved to make the lessons on front vowels useful and engaging With an attempt to improve students’ performance on English pronunciation, the investigation, hopefully, could serve as pronunciation instruction reference to the teachers of English v LIST OF TABLES Page Table 2.1 – Left- and right-brain characteristics 23 Table 3.1 – Number of students with Vietnamese regional dialects 72 Table 3.2 – Number of students with their starting age and instruction used 72 before the experiment Table 3.3 – Problematic monophthongs identified by students 73 Table 4.1 – Frequency of pretest scores from Class 2A 85 Table 4.2 – Frequency of pretest scores from Class 2B 85 Table 4.3 –Descriptive statistics of pretest scores from Classes 2A & 2B 86 Table 4.4 – Frequency of posttest scores from Class 2A 87 Table 4.5 – Frequency of posttest scores from Class 2B 88 Table 4.6 – Descriptive statistics of posttest scores from Classes 2A & 2B 88 Table 4.7 – Descriptive statistics of the means 94 Table 4.8 – Independent sample t-test comparing means of Classes 2A & 2B 94 Table 4.9 – Number and percentage of errors made by the students from 98 Class 2A Table 4.10 – Number and percentage of errors made by the students from 100 Class 2B Table 4.11 – Error differences between pretest and posttest 101 Table 4.12 – Percentage of errors of /i:/ and /á/ with regard to regional 102 dialects Table 4.13 – Differences between pre- and posttests’ errors made by students 103 with Southern and Southcentral dialects in respect of /i:/ and /á/ Table 4.14 – Percentage of errors of /e/ and /`/ with regard to regional dialects vi 104 Table 4.15 – Error percentage of /`/ with regard to regional dialects 104 Table 4.16 – Differences between pre- and posttests’ errors made by students 105 with Southern and Southcentral dialects in respect of /e/ and /`/ Table 4.17 – Error reduction after treatments within each regional dialect group vii 108 LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1.1 – The visual model of the theory of HUI English-majored 11 students’ front vowel performance Figure 1.2 – Skewed distribution vs normal distribution 13 Figure 2.1 – Word chart for English as a second language 46 Figure 2.2 – The shape of the lips or the size of the jaw opening in 55 comparison with tongue height in front vowel production Figure 3.1– Research design of the study 71 Figure 3.2 – Normal distribution 78 Figure 3.3 – Distribution of ideology in the American States 79 Figure 3.4 – Distribution in comparison with expected normal distribution 79 Figure 3.5 – Normal distribution checking with a boxplot 80 Figure 4.1 – Distribution of scores from Class 2A in comparison 90 with normal curve Figure 4.2 – Distribution of scores from Class 2B in comparison 91 with normal curve Figure 4.3 – Q-Q Plot of Pretest Scores from Class 2A 92 Figure 4.4 – Q-Q Plot of Pretest Scores from Class 2B 92 Figure 4.5 – Boxplot of posttest scores from Classes 2A & 2B 93 Figure 4.6 - Error differences between pretest and posttest 107 Figure 4.7 – Error reduction after treatments within each regional dialect 108 group Figure 4.8 – Error percentage of /`/ with regard to regional dialects 114 Figure 5.1 – Articulatory features of // and /ỗ/ 118 Figure 5.2 Minimal pair drills 121 viii Figure 5.3 – A list of meaningful words and nonsense syllables to practice /ỗ/ 122 Figure 5.4 Pronunciation Bingo card for practicing /e/ and /ỗ/ ix 123 - Ask the students to listen to the speaker in the program Pronunciation Power and repeat the sample words, minimal pairs in Comparative Words (using the minimal drills suggested by Bloomfield: read down each column and then across the two columns), and sentences Level sentences, Level Sentences Correct the students’ mistakes when necessary - Draw their attention to the colored letters and elicit the aspects of phonics reading Then use nonsense syllable activities to reinforce the rules The activity begins with the teacher writing some meaningful words on the board first, eliciting their pronunciation, and then writing some nonsense syllables which should take the form of minimal pairs Have students read all the words and syllables aloud and continuously (see Chapter for an example) - Have them read the tongue-twisters from the book English Pronunciation Illustrated by John Trim (see Appendix 9) - Ask the students to work in pairs and practice the following conversation between two doctors, suggested by O’Connor and Fletcher (1991: 93), paying attention to the two vowels A : Have you been busy this evening? B : Pretty busy My first patient was Jim Beaton He had twisted his knee He slipped on a banana skin in the street I think he just needs to rest his knee He’s very fit A : My first patient was Mrs N eale She keeps being sick, and it’s just because she eats too much B : A lot of patients don’t really need treatment They feel ill because they silly things We can give them pills to treat some illness, but they need to keep fit and eat sensibly - Ask for performance and give feedback 165    Guided practice and feedback: The following exercise, suggested by Hewings and Goldstein (2000: 13) in the book Pronunciation Plus is used at this stage India fourteen river cheese knee musician milk pink chicken Egypt skiing tea Chinese green British teacher swimming stream finger a million Work in pairs From the words in the box, discuss and find two … 1.things to eat sports jobs parts of the body countries nationalities numbers things containing water colors 10 things to drink - Have the students look at the box and pay attention to the letters underlined, ask them to predict how the words are pronounced The students base themselves on the phonics reading rules they were taught in the stage of controlled practice to answer the question - Have them read the words aloud - Ask them to work in pairs and the exercise, then ask them to report the answers to the rest of the class and give feedback Communicative practice and feedback: 166    - Ask the students to work in pairs, look at the box in the last exercise and discuss the following questions: Which food and drink you like? Which job you think is very interesting to do? Which colors you like? Which sport you play? What are some benefits of the sports given above? Consolidation: Remind the students that it is very important to distinguish the two vowels they have just learnt so that misunderstandings and breakdowns in communication not occur 167    APPENDIX LESSON PLAN Focal point: /e/ and /ỗ/ Class 2B I Objective: Assist students with their improvement on producing /e/ and /ỗ/ with listening and imitation as the main teaching technique, without including any fundamental phonetic features concerning vowel length, tenseness/laxness, and lip rounding II Materials needed: - Pronunciation Power CD-ROM - A Microsoft PowerPoint file displaying the guided dialogue and communicative activity - A Microsoft Words file showing the content of the lesson in Pronunciation Power CD-ROM and the tongue-twisters - Handouts for the game Pronunciation Bingo III Procedure: Listening and discrimination: - Ask the students to listen to the examples of the two sounds /e/ and /ỗ/ in the part Sample Words and Comparative Words carefully first - Have them listen to the exercise Listening Discrimination A and distinguish the vowels in some minimal pairs at word level - Have them listen to the exercise Listening Discrimination B and distinguish the vowels in some minimal pairs at sentence level - Use the game of Pronunciation Bingo (see Chapter 5) 168    Controlled practice and feedback: - Ask the students to listen to the speaker in the program Pronunciation Power and repeat the sample words, minimal pairs in Comparative Words (using the minimal drills suggested by Bloomfield: read down each column and then across the two columns), and sentences Level sentences, Level Sentences Correct the students’ mistakes when necessary - Draw their attention to the colored letters and elicit the aspects of phonics reading Then use nonsense syllable activities to reinforce the rules The activity begins with the teacher writing some meaningful words on the board first, eliciting their pronunciation, and then writing some nonsense syllables which should take the form of minimal pairs Have students read all the words and syllables aloud and continuously (see Chapter for an example) - Have them read the tongue-twisters from the book English Pronunciation Illustrated by John Trim (see Appendix 10) - Ask the students to work in pairs and practice the following conversation about a car accident, paying attention to the two vowels A : I’m a reporter from the Hendon Standard Were you present when the accident happened? B : Yes, I was standing at the end of Elm Avenue, by the park A : What happened? B : There was a red van travelling west, and several cars and vans behind it A : Was the red van going fast? B : N o The driver kept glancing at a map on his lap Then a black taxi started to pass the red van A : Was that the cause of the accident? 169    B : It wasn’t the taxi that caused the accident It was the red van The van driver suddenly turned and crashed into the taxi A : What happened then? B : The taxi smashed into a lamppost The taxi driver wasn’t badly hurt, but he was very angry (O’Connor and Fletcher, 1991: 96) - Ask for performance and give feedback Guided practice and feedback: The following exercise, adapted from the book Pronunciation Plus by Hewings and Goldstein (2000: 4) in the book Pronunciation Plus is used at this stage a map a television a sweater a tennis racket a camera a flashlight a tent your address book a credit card stamps a blanket matches backpack some cash a hat an interesting magazine Work in pairs Discuss with your partner the three most important things to have when … you are lost in a city you are on vacation your car breaks down you are lost in the woods you want to kill time Choose words from the box 170    - Have the students look at the box and find the words containing /ỗ/ The students base themselves on the phonics reading rules they were taught in the stage of controlled practice to answer the question - Have them read the words aloud - Ask them to work in pairs and the exercise, then ask them to report the answers to the rest of the class and give feedback Communicative practice and feedback: - Ask the students to go around the lab room and the following exercise adapted from the activity suggested by Hewings and Goldstein (2000: 12), with some changes: Find someone in your class who… has a cat speak Japanese likes to go camping collect stamps wear hats go to bed late Consolidation: Remind the students that it is very important to distinguish the two vowels they have just learnt so that misunderstandings and breakdowns in communication not occur 171    APPENDIX 10 TONGUE-TWISTERS FOR /i:/ AND /1/ 172    APPENDIX 11 TONGUE-TWISTERS FOR /e/ AND /ỗ/ 173 APPENDIX 12 SOME TYPICAL CONTENTS OF THE LESSONS FROM PRONUNCIATION POWER CD-ROM /i:/ AND /1/ Sample words: eat please see easy feel funny east team tea it him his inch with win is fifty sit ] Comparative words: sheep – ship neat – knit clean – lan feet – fit eat – it eel – ill sleep – slip breezy – busy Listening discrimination A: The words are not shown on the screen, and students just listen to pairs of words and say whether they contain the same vowel or different vowels Listening discrimination B: The ship/sheep is very white I can easily feel/fill it It was a very big feast/fist She wore a neat/knit dress 174    The scene/sun was very beautiful S.T.A.I.R: She is a teacher William is sick These are nice plants I wonder if he is home Did he call me? The soldier was injured Put the milk in the tea William is sick This honey is swet I wonder if he is home Level sentences: She is happy Please speak slowly The teachers like teenagers Don’t leave me here Is he angry to see me It is cold I speak English Please give the bill to him She will drink a little bit of milk The six children caught fifteen fish in fifty minutes Level sentences: We have sheep on our farm I eat three peaches every day It is five-fifteen; it is time to sleep If you leave the bus, someone may steal your seat The eagle made a very neat nest in the tree It’s a very little pin 175    Please give the bill to me Pleas tell him that it is dinner time The women went to the skating rink The children hid in the field from the wind 176    APPENDIX 13 SOME TYPICAL CONTENTS OF THE LESSONS FROM PRONUNCIATION POWER CD-ROM /e/ AND /ỗ/ Sample words: end get never egg went less elk head yes at fact laugh aunt man track as stamp mat Comparative words: sad – said bag – beg man – men pan – pen and – end pat – pet Listening discrimination A: The words are not shown on the screen, and students just listen to pairs of words and say whether they contain the same vowel or different vowels Listening discrimination B: The friends had a big bet/bat Did the man/men eat? They hid behind the bend/band The bat/bet is very big Have you seen the jam/gem? 177    S.T.A.I.R: How is the weather? She is eating an apple When can we get it? This is for Andy When will this end? When will Alice call? Where is Len going? The backpack is red Where is the letter? Janice has a balc jacket Level sentences: We went home The letter “e” is in “sent” Today is Wednesday ,February eleventh You will never find your ten cents Let’s take the elevator I’m sad I can run fast Thank you for standing up We have a fat,black cat My grandmother and grandfather love to laugh Level sentences: Seven men played chess with their friends Ken will tell us if the weather will change The men sell lettuce ,lemons,red and yellow peppers and special bread   On Wednesday, the presents went out for the wedding The chef sells the leftover bread after breakfast It’s a fact that math is hard to 178    Can you grab my knapsack strap? Last Saturday , when my aunt sat on her hat it went flat That man has a cabbage salad ,a lamb sandwich and an apple My family plans to travel to Canada ,France ,Japan and Vietnam 179